unclescott58

I'm still not sure what Common Core is? What your demonstrating above looks like is a pretty good way to explain things to certain kids. Not all kids learn the same way.

Your right. It was Jack Warden. Not Jack Albertson.

I forgot about that! Ever notice as Luke, Jack Albertson's character dies in that scene, he still grabs the money from the guy? One of the all time great scenes in cinema. From one of the most underrated all time great comedies in film history.

Mixed feelings on what I got in today's mail. One is an AMT/Matchbox era 1/16 scale '55 Thunderbird. It's molded in an ugly red plastic. The windshield frame is broken. But, I expected that. But, my main worry is it's missing a couple parts. One metal axle. The glass for the hardtop rear window and headlamps. Both are from the same tree. And the white wall tire inserts. All of the other parts from the tree whitewall inserts should be on, are there, but lose. Between the plastic the kit is molded in. Looking at what it's going to take to fix the windshield frame with that type of plastic. And the missing parts. I'm thinking of maybe shipping this one back and asking for a refund. Number two, are two very nice diecast models I purchase from a vendor out of Russia. The model themselves are made by a company out of Germany. Neo Scale Models. I got two of their beautiful Corvair 95s models. A Greenbrier passenger van. And a Rampside pickup truck. They are so nice, I'm seriously thinking I need their their Corvan cargo van too. And by the way, I was very impressed with the outfit that sold me these two models. They got them here very quickly considering they came all of the way from Russia. I am very pleased with the service I got from them. Number three, is again not a model. It DVDs of whole first season of Happy Days. The only season I really liked. When they were not filmed in front of a live studio audience. Before Richie's older brother Chuck went up stairs and was never seen or mentioned again in the whole series. When Fonzie was a side character, and fell a bit more like a real greaser from the time period. When show actually felt like it was happening in the 1950's. Each episode felt more like a mini American Graffiti type movie. Which I loved. Plus being filmed outdoors more, you got to see more cool cars. They slowly ruined that show over the years. First by moving it to a film stage in front of a live audience. It was all down hill from there. Number four, back to the model related items. Two things from Bob's Model Car Parts. First, instrument gauges for AMT's 1/16 scale '55 Thunderbird. And second, modern 1/25 scale Minnesota license plate. I've purchased stuff from him before, and always have been pretty pleased.

Snake your humor scares me! It's way too close to mine. ?

During the late 1960's, early 1970's, the Minnesota State Patrol drove Maroon cars with White roofs. The reason the White roofs? To help keep the cars cooler inside in the summer. Because they were not equipped with air conditioning. Starting in '73 they got air conditioning in their cars, and went back to all Maroon colored cars. An odd side note to that. Before 1968, Minnesota drove all Maroon cars. But, with a large White star in a circle on the roof. The reason for that? So airplanes looking for speeders could identify the State Patrol cars from the air.

Mentioning Uno brings up a good story. Back in the late 70's, early 1980's, I belonged to a young people's AA group. We were sober. But, still nuts. During that time we use to rent a camp in northwestern Wisconsin, which had a bunch of small sleeping cabins and a main lodge, every Memorial and Labor Day weekends for serveral years. There where lots of practical jokes, late night water balloon fights, blowing off fireworks, etc going on. And a lot of card playing. Including Uno. One of the guys in our group hated Uno. Big time. So we were quite surprised on one of these trips, when he pulled out new pack of Uno, and asked if anybody wanted to play. There were several affirmatives, and questions about why this guy wanted to play Uno? We're sitting in the main lodge, next to the large fireplace with a good fire going as this is happening. This guy opens up his new pack of Uno cards and starts spraying the cards into fire. And when he was done, turns to those around him and says, "there's what I think of your damned Uno." And walks away. It may sound mean. But, somehow it seemed funny at the time. It also maybe one of those things where you may have needed to be there find this story funny or even interesting. And there are better and more interesting stories than this, from those trips. But, for what ever reason, it's one of those fond little memories I will always have from those silly camping trips.

I like it. Beautiful job.

The Bonne looks pretty good. The taillights look a little odd to me. But, I'm not really sure if they are.

The Caddy, Buick, and Pontiac look pretty good. There is something off about the Chevy (other than it being a '65) and the Thunderbird. Recent I've added the Wildcat to my collection. The body looks great. The interior and chassis generic with other Hasegawa kits. I've just ordered the Cadillac and the Thunderbird. I'm curious to see how good they look.

Stunning looking car. Very nice.

Through today's mail, I've just re-added one of the all time great games to my collection. Mille Bornes. First played this game with a cousin and his friend back in the summer of 1972. Being a car nut, I fell in love with it right away. A fun game, and in this edition with its original art work, a beautiful game too. Tire to go racing racing again through the French countryside.

Into today's mail: 1. An AMT '66 Thunderbird. Haven't built this kit since this edition of the kit first came out. What is that? Over thirty years now? Felt it was time to do another. I've never really been happy with the one I did at the time. I painted it with black Testors' enamel back then. I feel I can do a better job today using the newer lacquers. And really want the Bird done in a Dark Blue. 2. Three cans of Tamiya Olive Drab spray paint. I got several military vehicles sitting in the wings, just waiting for paint. They need to wait no longer. 3. I got the game Mille Bornes. Not model related directly. But, it is car related. Being a car nut, I loved this game when I first encountered it back in the summer of 1972. Staying with one of my cousins that summer, we played it with a friend of his quite a bit. If your a car nut, and have never played the game, your missing out on one of best. It's still great.

Ah, so your part of the reason the rest of us can't find one. I too loved that kit. That whole series of kits was pretty good.

Another one that made me laugh out loud.

You know, I'm in the field of education, and I don't even know what "common-core" is?

I like this old ad. Back when $50.00 was a big deal.

To me raisins aren't bad until you bake them in something else. Raisins by themselves. Okay. ? Raisins heated and/or baked. Yuck! ?

By the way, like a real Buick, this Brooklin's model above weighs a ton. Okay, I know in reality a real '67 Buick Wildcat is closer to two tons. And the model does really weight anywhere close to a ton. But, for a 1/43 scale model it's remarkably heavy. It weights a lot! Sorry to say, I don't have a scale to weight it. I'm very curious to find out what it does weight, if anybody can tell me.

Since discovering Tamiya paint, I miss neither Pactra's or Testors' paint. Though I do find Testors' lacquer spray paint pretty good. Enamel it seems, no matter who makes it, to me is junk. Compared to using mordern acrylics and lacquers. I don't miss the brush marks enamel use to give me in my brush paint jobs. Or things like orange peel in my enamel spray jobs. I also do not miss cleaning my paint brushes with smelly brush cleaners or paint thinners when using enamels. Acrylics clean up with water. That is so much nicer. And I love modern hobby lacquer spray paints. I'm getting my best paint jobs ever using Tamiya and Testors lacquer paints. I remember all the hassles of trying to get good spray paint jobs from enamels. Heating up the cans. Putting the model a food dehydrator for 24 hours before painting the next coat. And still getting orange peal or other flaws. Everybody still tell you to heat up the cans of any spray paint. Including lacquer. But, over my years of using lacquer, I've even been doing that less and less. I haven't seen any real need to do it with lacquers. And I can only remember plugging in my food dehydrator once in the last year. And again that was to dry some enamel paint. Not lacquer. Lacquer dries by itself, to where you can shot a second coat if necessary in a matter of a couple hours. Rather than the 24 required with most hobby enamels. Also I use to buy enamel spray paint (read Testors), because it was cheaper than lacquer (read Tamiya). But in the long run it wasn't. Several times using the cheap enamel, I'd end up having to strip the paint off and start new again because of some flaw. Since switching to the modern, more expensive lacquers, I don't think I've had to strip one new paint job I've put on. So the the expensive lacquer is really saving me in the long run. And eliminating a lot of worries and frustrations. Nostalgia is a hobby of mine. Sometimes I have fond memories of old things that were not really all that great. Old paints is not one of those things. I have very few, if any, memories of using paint in the past that is all that good.

I know some friends here in the mid-western parts of the U.S. who would find that funny. Including me.